All four members of a family missing in the wreckage of a house swallowed in a landslide northeast of Montreal have been found dead, officials confirmed Tuesday night.

All four were found in the basement of the Saint-Jude building that was swept away in the landslide on Monday night. Saint-Jude is a town of about 1,000 residents north of St-Hyacinthe near the Yamaska River.

“They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the couch in the family room in the basement, where we were told that they’d be,” said Michel C. Doré, Quebec’s associate deputy public security minister, who was on the scene.

‘We tried to reach them by phone, because the father always wears his cellphone on him. The firefighters heard the cellphone, but they weren’t able to [locate] it.’— Ronald McKinnis, Quebec police sergeant

After searching the ground and first floors of the house, which had shifted from its foundation, officials brought in heavy equipment to take apart the building to access the basement.

The green-roofed home had moved more than 30 metres from its original location, Doré said.

Local authorities said the family’s vehicles were parked in front of the house Monday night, leading them to believe that Richard Préfontaine, his wife, Lyne Charbonneau, and their two daughters, Amélie, 12, and Anaïs, 9, were inside when the ground gave way.

Officials had been working on the theory the whole family was in the basement living room watching the Canadiens-Penguins hockey game at the time of the collapse, Doré said.

Members of the family were huge Habs fans, Préfontaine’s uncle, Yvon Desrochers told CBC News.

Late Tuesday morning, rescue workers found the family’s golden retriever, Foxy, in a pit, caked in mud but in relatively good shape. The dog had apparently been tied up outside at the time of the landslide.

The Préfontaines' home fell more than nine metres into the hole. The barn is in the foreground

Canadian Press NewsAlert: Authorities locate all four family members in house … – Winnipeg Free Press